Does art imitate life or life imitate art?  Perhaps the better question is, does a spinal cord injury inspire art or does art help someone recover after a paralyzing accident?

If you were to ask our firm’s San Diego paralysis attorneys, they’d say both.

KENS5.com has reported that a Texas based artist, who was paralyzed during diving accident, has found an outlook for recovery through painting and wants to give other paralyzed artists his same spark of hope.  After all, arts and creativity can help with the recovery process for those living with paralysis.

At one point after his accident, the individual thought his quadriplegia would go away after six to eight months.  Then reality set in that his paralysis diagnosis was bleak to say the least.  He had to come face-to-face with the facts: he might never get to walk again and the use of his upper body would be extremely limited.

Nine years later,  his outlook for recovery remains the same on his health records, but different in his mind.  His goal is to still get out of the chair, to regain the use of his limbs, and to walk again.  How does he do that now?  By painting pictures for the Houston hospital where he underwent paralysis treatment or as he puts it, “paints [himself] out of the chair.”

How does this individual paint his artistic vision without the use of his limbs?  By clenching his jaw around a dow that’s connected to a long rod with an adjustable holder for multiple paint brushes.  Going very carefully and with painstaking attention to detail, the man essentially paints with his mouth and his heart.

This man’s hope is that his method of recovery will inspire others with spinal cord injuries to do the same, to create and make art, with the goal of painting a future without paralysis.

The San Diego spinal cord injury lawyers at our firm share this vision, because in our twenty years of experience, we have learned that you cannot give up hope or goals when it comes to living with paralysis.

If you or a loved one have been involved in an accident and suffered a spinal cord injury or paralysis, we urge you to contact our bilingual offices as soon as possible following the accident at 1-858-551-2090 or please click here for a free consultation with an experienced paralysis lawyer in San Diego.  We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis, which means that you owe us nothing until we recover money on your behalf.